Radio România Internațional

Tag: Ukraine crisis

  • The Ukraine Conflict and Ethnic Romanians

    The Ukraine Conflict and Ethnic Romanians

    On Friday the Romanian Foreign Ministry issued a new warning concerning the armed conflict in east Ukraine, this time about a number of roads in the Cernauti region, near the Romanian border, which had been blocked. Sources from the region later explained that the locals in west Ukraine, mostly ethnic Romanians, had chosen this form of protest to express their discontent with Kiev’s decision to call a new partial military mobilization.



    Hundreds of Romanian youth were called to arms, and their parents fear that they will be sent to fight against the pro-Russian separatists in the east of the country. People from Cernauti have already lost their lives in the clashes, so outraged people burnt their incorporation orders in the streets. The locals blocked the roads and threatened they would not leave until the regional authorities cancel the orders issued after the Parliament of Ukraine approved a partial mobilization last week. The president of the “Mihai Eminescu” Romanian Cultural Association in Cernauti, Vasile Bacu, told Radio Romania:



    Vasile Bacu: “A lot of men were invited to the Military Commissariat to establish reservist units that would receive military training. Those who took to the streets are mostly the parents and relatives of those who are already deployed to the east of the country, because bad news keeps coming from that region. Men from Cernauti were killed there as well. So everybody is afraid their men will be sent to war.”



    “We need peace in Ukraine. We don’t need our kids going to war and dying,” says one of the protesters, quoted by Romanian mass media. Another one wonders why Romanian youth have to die in Donbas or Donetsk, whereas young people from eastern Ukraine came to their region as refugees.



    Totaling around half a million people, the Romanian community in Ukraine lives mostly in the west of the country, in the former Romanian territories that were annexed by the former Soviet Union in 1940, and which in 1991 became part of Ukraine. This third-largest ethnic community in Ukraine, after the Ukrainians and Russians, the Romanian minority has no part in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict.



    In Bucharest, the Foreign Ministry once again recommended caution as regards travels to Ukraine, and posted updated security information on the region on its homepage, at www.mae.ro.

  • Romania and the Situation in Ukraine

    Romania and the Situation in Ukraine

    A hybrid war — this is how President Traian Basescu has described the conflict in eastern Ukraine, not far from the border with Romania. The Romanian head of state believes Russia is waging a proxy war, using Chechen, Cossack and Trandniestrian separatists deployed in the area to support the pro-Russian rebel militias. At the same time, it is also a form of guerilla and information warfare, to which the pro-Russian separatists have just added acts of terrorism.



    Responsibility for the latest developments, the Romanian President argues, lies with the separatists, but also with Moscow, which has given them political support, military personnel and equipment, including heavy weaponry. The President’s criticism comes as the international community is going at great lengths to shed light on the circumstances of last week’s crash of a Malaysia Airlines passenger flight that killed all 298 people onboard. Who is responsible for this attack?



    Traian Basescu: “Based on an analysis and the intelligence we have at present, we believe the terrorist group in Eastern Ukraine is directly responsible for shooting down the Malaysian Airlines plane. The Russian Federation has provided the rebels with specialists and equipment to carry out the strike, and therefore is equally responsible. I have heard president Putin’s plea against politicizing this incident. No one is politicizing it, but president Putin cannot hide from this, shunning responsibility with lies and deferrals”.



    In this context, can the European Union do more than it has already done? According to President Basescu, the answer is definitely yes.



    Traian Basescu: “Sanctions should have been applied a long time ago. There should have been harsher economic sanctions to dissuade the Russian Federation from fuelling the conflict in eastern Ukraine. Of course, there have always been arguments against such measures: one country may have large investments there, another country may be supplying them with state-of-the-art equipment. Some may rely on Russian energy exports, while others simply try to be on good terms with both the EU and the Russian Federation, and simply try to stay out of it. Of course, the economic aspects are extremely important. But the European Union is all about values, and our greatest value is the European citizen and his safety”.



    The more the EU delays imposing harsher sanctions on Russia, the higher the price Europe will pay for not putting an end to Vladimir Putin’s ambition to rebuild the former Soviet Union, President Traian Basescu concluded.

  • Romania and the Situation in Ukraine

    Romania and the Situation in Ukraine

    A hybrid war — this is how President Traian Basescu has described the conflict in eastern Ukraine, not far from the border with Romania. The Romanian head of state believes Russia is waging a proxy war, using Chechen, Cossack and Trandniestrian separatists deployed in the area to support the pro-Russian rebel militias. At the same time, it is also a form of guerilla and information warfare, to which the pro-Russian separatists have just added acts of terrorism.



    Responsibility for the latest developments, the Romanian President argues, lies with the separatists, but also with Moscow, which has given them political support, military personnel and equipment, including heavy weaponry. The President’s criticism comes as the international community is going at great lengths to shed light on the circumstances of last week’s crash of a Malaysia Airlines passenger flight that killed all 298 people onboard. Who is responsible for this attack?



    Traian Basescu: “Based on an analysis and the intelligence we have at present, we believe the terrorist group in Eastern Ukraine is directly responsible for shooting down the Malaysian Airlines plane. The Russian Federation has provided the rebels with specialists and equipment to carry out the strike, and therefore is equally responsible. I have heard president Putin’s plea against politicizing this incident. No one is politicizing it, but president Putin cannot hide from this, shunning responsibility with lies and deferrals”.



    In this context, can the European Union do more than it has already done? According to President Basescu, the answer is definitely yes.



    Traian Basescu: “Sanctions should have been applied a long time ago. There should have been harsher economic sanctions to dissuade the Russian Federation from fuelling the conflict in eastern Ukraine. Of course, there have always been arguments against such measures: one country may have large investments there, another country may be supplying them with state-of-the-art equipment. Some may rely on Russian energy exports, while others simply try to be on good terms with both the EU and the Russian Federation, and simply try to stay out of it. Of course, the economic aspects are extremely important. But the European Union is all about values, and our greatest value is the European citizen and his safety”.



    The more the EU delays imposing harsher sanctions on Russia, the higher the price Europe will pay for not putting an end to Vladimir Putin’s ambition to rebuild the former Soviet Union, President Traian Basescu concluded.

  • June 27, 2014

    June 27, 2014

    HISTORIC MOMENT-The Republic of Moldova, a country with a majority Romanian speaking population, and Georgia have today signed in Brussels the EU Association and Free Trade Agreements. Also today, Ukraine has signed the economic component of the bilateral document with the EU. The President of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barosso, has deemed the signing of the agreements as historic. He has warned however that their success depends on the three former Soviet states’ going ahead with a series of reforms, which bring them closer to the European political, economic and cultural values. In Chishinau, pro-western Prime Minister Iurie Leanca claims that he has prepared the relevant institutions to efficiently implement the Association Agreement, which he considers to be a stage in his country’s EU accession process. In exchange, the Moscow-leaning opposition-communist and socialist- is committed to restoring the partnership with Russia, if it returns to power, following the legislative elections due in autumn. Romania, a fervent and consistent supporter of Moldova’s European integration, is represented at the Brussels Summit by President Traian Basescu.



    MOSCOW– Russia has again threatened to take new measures to protect its domestic market, if it notices that the former Soviet republics’ association with the EU affects its commercial interests. Our correspondent in Moscow quotes a communiqué issued by the Russian Foreign Ministry as reading that the agreements signed in Brussels on Friday by the Republic of Moldova, Ukraine and Georgia can cause huge damage to the Russian economy, as a direct consequence of halting cooperation in the field of production and of reducing Moscow’s relations with Chishinau, Kiev and Tbilisi, respectively. The Russian Federation’s Aviation Authorities have already announced that they no longer allow the Air Moldova airline to operate the flight between Moscow and Chishinau and back, without however providing an explanation.



    UKRAINE— Four OSCE observers, who were abducted by pro-Russian rebels a month ago, have been released. Last night, they arrived in Donetsk, a fiefdom of the separatists in eastern Ukraine. Separatist leaders, who claim to have control of all paramilitary groups which fight against the Ukrainian forces, blamed the observers’ abduction on a gang. Also in Donetsk, pro-Russian insurgents have announced they seized a Ukrainian military base. In another move, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has expressed his readiness to sign what he called a peace deal with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, in an attempt to put an end to the insurgency.



    ROMANIAN LIBERALS-The National Liberal Party, the main right wing-opposition party in Romania, is today meeting in an extraordinary Congress to endorse the changes brought to the party statute. An ordinary Congress convenes on Saturday to elect a new party leadership. The mayor of the central Romanian town of Sibiu, Klaus Iohannis, stands highest chances of becoming party president. The Liberals should also decide on a merger with the Liberal Democratic Party, the other main party of centre-right orientation in Romania. In another move, the Liberals should also make a decision on their party’s leaving the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe, ALDE, and joining the European People’s Party, EPP. We recall that in February, the National Liberal Party denounced the ruling alliance with the Social Democrats and joined the opposition.



    TOP-LEVEL SCANDAL– The Court of Appeal in Bucharest is today analysing the appeal made by Mircea Basescu, the brother of the Romanian president, against a court decision which led to his 30-day arrest, pending trial, in an influence peddling file. A week ago, the Bucharest Tribunal decided to arrest Mircea Basescu, at the anti-corruption prosecutors’ request, who accused him of taking a 250,000 Euro bribe, in exchange for trying to influence a favourable ruling in a manslaughter attempt lawsuit, against a ringleader.



    TENNIS– Romania’s 3rd seeded tennis player Simona Halep is today meeting Ukrainian Lesia Tsurenko in the second round of the Wimbledon tennis tournament, the third largest Grand Slam of the year. Scheduled for Thursday, the match has been postponed because of heavy rain. Halep is the last Romanian woman tennis player left in the Ladies’ Singles, after five of her co-nationals had got eliminated. In the Ladies’ Doubles, Romanian Monica Niculescu and Czech Klara Koukalova will play in the first round against the Spanish pair Garbine Muguruza/Carla Suarez Navarro, and the Romanian-Italian pair Irina Begu – Karin Knapp will meet Russians Ekaterina Makarova/Elena Vesnina. In the first round of the Mixed Doubles, the pair made up of Romanian Florin Mergea and Ukrainian Elina Svitolina will meet the pair made up of German Andre Begemann and Ukrainian Olga Savciuk.

  • June 18, 2014 UPDATE

    June 18, 2014 UPDATE

    ECONOMY– The Romanian Government on Wednesday endorsed a draft law introducing a 5% reduction in employer social security contributions, as of October 1st. The aforementioned draft will be submitted to Parliament for debate and adoption in an emergency procedure. The draft is aimed at easing taxation on labour. Although the decision has not been green-lighted by Romania’s international lenders, Prime Minister Victor Ponta has given assurances there is enough money for this measure to be introduced. He has also said that the implementation cost will stand at around 191 million euros in the last quarter of this year and that the Romanian state will reach all macro-economic goals established jointly with the IMF, among which maintaining the same budget deficit. The Cartel ALFA National Trade Union Confederation however, argues that the government’s measure will in fact increase the multinational companies’ net profit and will decrease contributions to the pension fund. Therefore, Cartel ALFA asks for the 5% cut to be applied to employees and not to employers. The decision has been termed by the opposition as a populist one, given that 2014 is an election year in Romania.



    UKRAINE CRISIS– Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on Wednesday made public his decision to order a unilateral ceasefire in the east of the country to allow pro-Russian insurgents to lay down weapons. Poroshenko made the announcement following a phone conversation with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, after two Russian journalists got killed in eastern Ukraine, a region ravaged by separatism. Russia has warned that none of the murders against Russian citizens will go unpunished. The UN Security Council condemned, in a declaration, the killing of two journalists and called for opening an investigation into violence against reporters, FP reports. The declaration also makes reference to the killing in May, of an Italian photojournalist, actually the first journalist to be killed since the start of the pro-Russian separatist uprising in Ukraine. In another move, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe on Wednesday asked again for the “immediate and unconditional” release of its observers who have been detained for several weeks now in eastern Ukraine. The OSCE accuses Russia of further sending paramilitary troops and guns to Ukraine.



    IRAQ-The Iraqi Government on Wednesday made an official request to the US to launch air strikes against the Jihad fighters who unleashed a flash offensive in Iraq, foreign minister Hoshyar Zebari has announced. The request was made after Jihadi fighters on Wednesday laid siege to Iraq’s largest oil refinery, some 200 kilometres away from the capital city Baghdad, and set oil reserves on fire. Earlier, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki called on Iraqi people to stay united against militants. Since June 9, the Government in Baghdad (with a Shia majority membership) has been faced with an offensive by the Sunni radical group “The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant”, which took control of some important regions in the north, east and west of the country, in a bid to create an Islamic state in the area. In another move, Iranian President Hossan Rohani, whose country is inhabited by a predominantly Shia population on Wednesday warned he would do anything it takes to protect Shia Islamic Holy Places in that country from the fundamentalist threat posed by the “Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant”.



    VISIT- The minister delegate for the Romanians Around the World, Bogdan Stanoevici will pay a visit to the United States, between June 19th and 23rd. The Romanian official will have talks with Mrs.Loretta Sanchez, member of the House of Representatives (D-California) and co-chair of the Congressional Romania Caucus. Bogdan Stanoevici will also meet in New York with representatives of the Romanian community and the Romanian language press. The minister will also attend the 15th edition of a festival entitled “Romania’s Day on Broadway”.



    ASSAULT-The Romanian Foreign Ministry has asked the French authorities to clarify as soon as possible the circumstances in which a young Romanian of Roma origin was assaulted by a group of people on the outskirts of Paris. The Ministry believes that such extremely violent acts against European citizens, Romanians included, are to a certain extent the result of a public display of a xenophobic and often racist attitude by some politicians from the community area. A young Romanian of Roma origin was abducted on Friday in an improvised camp on the northern outskirts of Paris by 12 people who beat him until he became unconscious and then abandoned him. French authorities have publicly condemned the violence and opened an attempted murder investigation.



    MADRID-King Juan Carlos on Wednesday promulgated the organic law of abdication, which put an end to his 39-year long reign, news agencies report. On Thursday, June 19, Crown Prince Felipe of Asturias will be proclaimed King of Spain before the plenary sitting of Parliament.

  • June 6, 2014

    June 6, 2014

    ARRESTS– People holding top level managing positions in important state institutions in Romania have been taken into custody by the National Anti-Corruption Directorate for bribe taking and influence peddling. They are brought to court today, the prosecutors calling for their being remanded in custody, pending trial. Two of those arrested are the vice-president of the National Energy Regulatory Authority and a director with ENEL, an important electricity supplier. According to the prosecutors, Enel Muntenia, a company with hundreds of thousands of customers, has allegedly doubled the tax levied for green certificates. By this mechanism, hundreds of thousands of customers have been cheated. The situation has been discovered by the energy regulatory authority, which has proposed a 6% cut in tariffs, as a penalty. The vice-president of the National Energy Regulatory Authority has however intervened in favour of the supplier, getting in exchange a contract in favour of a private company. In another move, one of the richest businesspeople in Romania, Dan Adamescu, is today being brought to court, and is likely to be remanded in custody, pending trial. He is detained in a lawsuit, in which he is accused of giving bribe in exchange for receiving favourable solutions in insolvency files involving some of his companies.



    D-DAY 70th ANNIVERSARY-19 of the most important world leaders, among whom US President Barack Obama, French President Francois Hollande, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Queen Elisabeth II of Great Britain and Russian President Vladimir Putin, are today celebrating, on the French beaches of Normandy, 70 years since the decisive moment of victory over Nazi Germany, in WW II. The ceremonies are however overshadowed by the Ukraine crisis and the tense relations with Russia, following Crimea’s annexation. The Allies’ Landing, also known in history as D-Day, continues to be, to the present day, the largest military operation in history, involving the participation of some 3 million troops, who crossed the Channel from Great Britain to Normandy, in Northern France.



    ECONOMY– A joint mission of the IMF, the European Commission and the World Bank is currently in Bucharest, until June the 16th, on a third assessment of the precautionary stand-by agreement signed with Romania last autumn. Today, representatives of the international lenders are having talks at the Health Ministry, the Finance Ministry and the National Bank of Romania. The talks are mainly aimed at finding solutions to introduce a 5% reduction in employer social security contributions, as of July the 1st. Following this week’s talks with representatives of the international lenders, the Romanian government has approved a series of measures meant to render the railway sector more efficient. These measures are part of Romania’s general transport master plan.



    UKRAINE– An approximately 150-200 km long sector of the border between Ukraine and Russia is currently under the control of pro-Russian militias, the RIA Novosti news agency quotes the so-called Prime Minister of the self-proclaimed Luhansk Republic, Vasili Nikitin, as saying. We recall that the Ukrainian government on Thursday decided to close down a sector of its border with Russia, alongside the regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, for security reasons, sources with the Ukrainian government have announced. The Ukrainian army is currently carrying out an anti-terrorist operation in the Russian speaking regions in southeastern Ukraine, where it faces a separatist insurgency. The events have taken a dramatic turn in the regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, where scores of dead and wounded among civilians have already been reported.



    TENNIS– Romanian tennis player Simona Halep will go up one position in WTA standings on Monday, being ranked 3rd in the world, irrespective of the result she will have scored in Saturday’s Roland Garros final against Russian Maria Sharapova. Halep has reached the finals of the second largest Grand Slam of the year after defeating German Andrea Petkovic in two sets. It is for the first time that Halep, who has been declared the woman tennis player with the greatest ascension in 2013, qualifies for a Grand Slam final. The last woman tennis player from Romania to play in a Grand Slam final was Virginia Ruzici, back in 1980, also at the Roland Garros, a tournament that she had won years before, in 1978.



    THEATRE– The 21st edition of the International Theatre Festival, the largest event of its kind in Romania, opens its doors in the central Romanian town of Sibiu. For ten days, hundreds of events, put up by 2,500 actors, artists and directors from 70 countries will turn Sibiu into a huge stage. The highlights of the festival will include theatre shows, dance, music, street performances, circus shows, exhibitions, reading sessions and conferences. Theatre critics rank Sibfest the 3rd largest festival of its kind in the world, after those in Edinburgh, Scotland, and Avignon in France.

  • June 4, 2014 UPDATE

    June 4, 2014 UPDATE

    US DEFENSE SECRETARY VISITS ROMANIA- US Defence Secretary, Chuck Hagel, who is paying a visit to Romania, is due to meet his Romanian counterpart, Mircea Dusa on Thursday, in the Romanian Black Sea Port of Constanta. The talks will focus on the military dimension of the Strategic Partnership between the two countries, laying emphasis on the US support granted to Romania in the current context, against the backdrop of the latest developments in its eastern neighbourhood, the importance of reassuring measures, at allied level and the operation stage of US projects unfolding in Romania. The two officials will also visit the USS Vella Gulf cruiser, which is in the Port of Constanta until June the 6th, as it participates in drills alongside NATO allies, as part of cooperation in the field of security. Chuch Hagel is also due to meet Prime Minister Victor Ponta. Hagel’s visit succeeds the visits paid to Romania last month by NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the CIA deputy director, Avril Haines, and US vice-president, Joe Bidden.



    THE EURO– Romania does not meet two of the five convergence criteria to switch to the Euro, namely those regarding inflation and the exchange rate. However, it complies with those referring to the budget deficit, the public debt and long term-interest rates, the Convergence Report issued by the European Commission on Wednesday shows. 6 other EU member states, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Croatia, Hungary, Poland and Sweden don’t meet the necessary conditions to switch to the European single currency. According to the European Commission, these countries’ situation will be reassessed in the following two years. According to the convergence report, Lithuania has met all criteria and consequently, the Euro zone will have 19 members as of January the 1st, 2015.



    THE US PRESIDENT’S EUROPEAN TOUR– The EU will sign, by June the 27th at the latest, the economic part of the Association and Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement with Ukraine, the President of the European Council, Herman van Rompuy announced in Brussels, ahead of the G7 Summit, devoted to the Ukraine crisis. The President of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, has said the EU is ready to host, next month, a meeting securing international support for Ukraine. The US President Barack Obama is also in Brussels, for the G7 Summit. Earlier in Warsaw, he had promised to Ukraine’s new president elect, Petro Poroshenko, an additional military aid against threats by pro-Russian separatists, backed by Moscow. The two officials also discussed a plan to restore peace, boost economic growth and reduce Ukraine’s energy dependence on Russia. Obama deplored Russia’s “obscure tactics” and “aggression” in Ukraine. The US president reiterated in Warsaw on Wednesday his country’s commitment to the security of its East-European allies, among which Romania. On Tuesday, Obama announced that he would propose to Congress to approve the allocation of one billion dollars for the deployment of new US forces in the region.



    UKRAINE- Kiev authorities are considering the possibility of declaring martial law in the regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, where the army has mounted a strong counter-offensive against pro-Russian separatists. The airport in Donetsk, which should have re-opened its doors on June the 6th, will continue to be closed down until the end of the month, because of the conflict in the region. The offensive continued on Wednesday near Sloviansk, a hotbed of pro-Russian separatism. In another development, forces loyal to the self-proclaimed Republic of Luhansk have occupied a military base in this city.



    IMF MISSION TO BUCHAREST- Talks continue in Bucharest between Romanian authorities and the joint delegation of the IMF, the European Commission and the World Bank, which is in Bucharest on a new mission to assess Romania’s standby agreement concluded with these institutions last autumn. IMF representatives on Tuesday discussed technicalities at the Finance Ministry and met with National Bank officials. Talks focused on monetary policy, inflation and the stability of the banking sector. IMF officials also met with the members of the joint parliamentary budget and finance committees. The main topic of interest was the Government’s intention to cut back 5% on employers’ social security contributions, as well as means of implementing this measure without increasing the budget deficit.



    ECONOMY- Romania reported a 3.8% economic growth in the first three months of the year, up by 0.1% as compared to the last quarter of 2013, recent data made public by the National Institute of Statistics read. Industry had the largest contribution to the increase of the country’s GDP, accounting to 2.3%. According to the report, constructions, financial mediation services, insurance brokerage, professional activities and administrative services have had a negative impact on the evolution of the gross domestic product.



    ARREST- National Anti-corruption Prosecutors have detained the director of the Agency for Payments and Intervention in Agriculture Dorel Benu and the head of the Suceava Police Department as part of a corruption case involving the misuse of EU funds. Benu faces corruption allegations in some 240-court cases, referring to illegal subsidies granted to natural and legal persons, as well as to certain parishes and monasteries. A total of 20 people are currently being investigated.



    TENNIS- The best Romanian woman tennis player of the moment, Simona Halep, ranked 4th in WTA standings, on Wednesday qualified for the semi-finals of the Roland Garros tournament in Paris, the second Grand Slam of the year. In the quarterfinals, Halep defeated Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova, ranked 27th in WTA standings, 6-2, 6-2. Halep will meet in the semi-finals German Andrea Petkovici, who defeated Italian Sara Errani, 6-2, 6-2. In the doubles event, the pair made up of Romanian Florin Mergea and Croat Marin Draganja will play Marcel Granollers and Marc Lopez of Spain.